The 8th Day of Creation
On the 8th day of creation, God made… the Church!
After Jesus rests in the tomb on Saturday (the seventh day), he rises again on Sunday (the eighth day). While seven is the biblical number of completion, eight is the number of redemption.
But Danielle (you say) - there aren’t actually eight days in a week!
Yes, I know. The first and the eighth day are, in fact, the same day which reveals something true about God’s work: it’s harmonious.
Laurence Stookey explains this beautifully: “As the eighth note of the scale is consonant with but higher than the first, so the new creation does not demean the creation of the cosmos, but reveals to us fuller insights into the Creator’s purpose and providence.”
Because the day of Christ's resurrection is the dawn of new creation, Sunday is also known as the eighth day of creation. On this day, Jesus binds all those who share in his resurrection into one body (his body!). We call that body the Church.
There are eight Sundays in Easter culminating in a celebration of the day of Pentecost (traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the Church!) to symbolize God's redemption and the creation of the Church.
As eighth day creations, we participate more fully in the first creation, illuminating the contours of what it was always intended to be: an open, loving relationship between creator and created.
